## (3) Conservation of the Natural Environment for a Sustainable Society

Along with such socioeconomic activity as resource gathering, it is necessary to consider those materials that are collected and excavated but disposed, because they are not the primary resource to be used. These are known as the “Hidden Flow/TMR(Total Material Requirement)” because they themselves do not appear in the statistics and therefore are less-visible. In these circumstances, the same approach as the idea of the “Ecological Rucksack” described by the Wuppertal Institute, Germany is used; this implies the total input amount of first-order raw material and energy necessary through the whole life-cycle of a specified commodity – the first-order raw material here contains surface soil and the rock dug-up at the mining stage.

Reducing the collection of new resources from the natural world, and promoting the cyclical use of resources will lead to a decrease in this hidden flow.

Deforestation, the decrease of wild animal habitats and territory, water pollution, salt pollution and damage to the health of local people have all been reported in relation to the mining of rare metals which are used for electronics parts. On the other hand, the ratio of metals accumulated in the so-called urban mine, such as domestic electronics parts in relation to the total world reserves varies depending on the metal, from a few percent to twenty percent or so. (Figure 1-3: The Amount of Japanese Reserves of the Various Metals found in Electronic Parts, Compared to World Reserves.) Therefore, it can be said that the recovery and reuse of rare metals from used products is a necessary activity for the maintenance of a sustainable natural environment and living environment.

Additionally, in the end garbage must be dumped in a final disposal site. The environmental load cannot be reduced to zero, whatever methods are chosen for construction of the final disposal site, such as by landfill reclamation in a mountain side or on a flatland, or by sea-surface reclamation in tidal mudflats or at the seaside. Therefore, it is necessary to prolong the existing life of final disposal sites by decreasing the final disposal amount of disposal waste and to the greatest possible extent impose restraints on the construction of new final disposal sites.

Figure 1-3 The Amount of Japanese Reserves of the Various Metals found in Electronic Parts, Compared to World Reserves

Note: The data for the reserves was taken from the 2007 edition of the Mineral Commodity summaries published by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Source: National Institute for Materials Science

Nagoya City, for example, has promoted several initiatives including recovery of resources from plastics and paper containers and packaging and installation of designated packaging bags, and has chosen not to construct a final disposal site in order to preserve the Fujimae Mudflat. Recently throughout the whole city, interested shops are beginning to charge for shopping bags, and service vehicles equipped with Reusable tableware and dish washing machines can be hired for event sites, so that the reduction of garbage and carbon dioxide emissions can be attained. As a result, when comparing Year 2007 to Year 1999, the amount of waste disposal was decreased to seventy percent, dumped waste decreased to forty percent and recovery of resources increased 2.8 times. Further, the Fujimae Mudflat was made a Ramsar Convention Treaty Wetland in Year 2002, and two centers were inaugurated in Year 2005, the “Fujimae Activity Center” (a facility for studying the mudflats and offering a hands-on nature experience) and the “Inenaga Visitor Center” (a facility for general and comprehensive environmental education). Each year, in total sixty thousand people visit the centers for sightseeing and education.

### 3. For integration of a sound material-cycle society and economic development

If community-based industries expand and employment opportunities increase through each participant's activity for the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, people can be trained to take on the responsibility for the creation of a sound material-cycle society in the region and can become driving forces for regional revitalization. When we consider that there are potentially enormous economic and employment opportunities in the world's leading 3Rs and waste-disposal technologies that our country possesses, it is more than possible to both simultaneously realize economic recovery/employment creation and the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, as well as to combine and integrate nationwide environmental conservation and economic growth. As a road map in that direction we are to overview both the activities needed by each participant, and the formation of a Regional Circulation Zone connected to regional development, and we shall consider approaches in the business community connecting the arterial industries with the venous industries, as well as to consider the challenges associated with the merging of the arterial and venous industries.

(1) Concrete activities needed by each participant

It is necessary for the activities of each participant in the establishment of a sound material-cycle society to be connected to the restrained consumption of those new natural resources necessary for socioeconomic activities. For that purpose, the following guidelines need to be promoted and set out “not to possess and use durable production goods just for oneself,”